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Leader (1850-1860), 11th December 1852, Edition Town of 2, Page 1184, Untitled Article

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      reckoned on them at home ; " that " the establishment of the Empire was the re-establishment of the old national frontiers of Prance—those of the Rhine ; " and that if these frontiers were not given them , " they would know how to take possession of them , with the Emperor at their head ; " and finally , we have a hundred assurances , more or less authentic-looking , that the very ideal of the French Emperor and his Algerian generals as to the best means of wiping out Waterloo , would be to make a dash at London with fifty thousand men , visit Threadneedle-street , and then go back

      again . All this is vague and shadowy , half fact , perhaps , and half fiction ; the mind alternately is credulous , and alternately sceptical—still , the impression remaining is , that but for some magnificent change of attitude in the French people , England is very likely to be involved in a war with France , either by a sudden outbreak , under French auspices , against England and her influence at all points , or by a more direct attack on our shores .

      Well , if it does come to that , what mil be the result ? The result will be , that we shall be beaten at first here and there—perhaps even to the extent of an actual landing—and that in the end we shall beat the French , and beat them tremendously . A Trafalgar in the Channel , saysome ; a W aterloo in iLent , say others—that will be the result . This , now , especially , that we are beginning to prepare , is assumed by British courage as so certain , that the mind already overleaps tkat result , and thinks of the problem to follow . The worst of a war with France is , that

      it would renew and send on to an indefinite future , that feeling which has come down from Waterloo—the feeling of implacability between the two nations . Just as now the French army is burning to avenge Waterloo , so , were we to defeat them again , there would be but some years of smouldering peace , and we should have the old vicious circle over again , and Trafalgars and Waterloos ad infinitum . Now we cannot stand this ; civilization cannot stand this ; we cannot go on making Avars with France for ever . And

      hence , should it ever come to pass that France attacks England and is defeated , it would necessarily be a problem with the statesmen of that hour so to treat France , so to frame the articles of pacification , that France , while still left capable of discharging all her functions in the World of ideas , should no more be an eternal thorn and thing of irritation in the political confederacy of Europe . This , we say , is a thing to be

      considered , and that by both parties . 3 Jut may the necessity never come ! May France , whether under the Empire or under any other form of government , resume her great part in speculation and in progressive action , teaching England in some tilings , and learning from her in others , but never fighting with her . War is a vastly easy thing to write- about ; but who can tell its woes and horrors P

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      " TENANT UUillT . " Titk "Irish debate" onTuesdaynight , intheTTouse of (/ ominous , upon the rather infornml question \\ liether JV 1 r . Sharnia . u Crawford ' s is a better bill than Mr . Aflorney-dJenoral Napier ' s , wils , at least in one respect , interesting to Knglishmen , as evidencing that the House of Commons has gained a large accession of respect ability and statesmanship in Hie new class of Irish members which has been discovered in the course of the agitation on

      Tenant . I'ighl . An " Irish debiife" has fora , lon < r time meant , in England something ludicrously stupid—a sound and furv which we had to put up with , as , per con ! nt , ( he Union , in consideration that it signified nothing . Clearly there is a , change , when the " Irish party , " / xtr excel'Icucc , elect as their leader a , man so thoroughly temperate , thoroughly logical ; and thoroughly master of his subject as JMr . Serjeant » Shee . It , is , indeed , wonderful how the vivid Irish intellect improves jiikI refines under the social mu \ political discipline of lengthened residence among Saxons !

      English readers will not easily perceive the point of this "Tenant Kight" controversy , if they get , confused in the too technical discussion of Tuesday . English readers will not be able at nil to relief a sympathy with the Irish tenant and lariner ' H demand , if they confine themselves merely to the question as to whether or not Mr . Napier ' s bills are ho absurdly bad an Messrs . Shoe , Lucas , and M'Mahon insist that they are .

      TImj previous question is , what docs " Tenant Right" mean P

      If Mr . Napier ' s bills are examined , they will , to the uninitiated Englishman , have this appearance , that an English Government has only just found out a . country called Ireland , which is in a state of anarchy , and to which ah initio land legislation must at once be app lied . These bills are to do the most obviously just and simple things ; and that such is the fact is a terrible comment upon our preceding legislation . Evidently the landlord , putting up his Attorney-General to legislate in this way , confesses thereby that he and his ancestors have for some time been guilty

      of considerable robbery . What has forced the landlord into this briskness to set matters right is , the public opinion which has been roused against him by the " Tenant-Bight" agitation . The million and a half who have within three years emigrated from Ireland to New York and Quebec have somewhat diminished that competition for land , of which hitherto the landlords have taken advantage to secure their own prices and terms : and the tenant ' s time seems now coming round . But the protection which Mr . Napier shrinkingly offers ( we are now speaking

      only of his Compensation Bill ; his other three bills are good enough in their way as law reforms ) to Irish tenants is , after all , fallacious . The case of Ireland is , that vast tracts of land are out of occupation , and that the occupied land is only half cultivated , because there is no security that the farmer will be permitted to enjoy the benefit of those improvements which he may make . To cure this evil , Mr . Napier satirically proposes that the ignorant peasant shall draw plans and specifications , serve notices , pay fees , employ counsel , enter on protracted litigation , finish his

      improvements within an absurdly inadequate time—and then what ? That if by any chance his rent is any one year unpaid , he shall be ejected , and shall get nothing ! If he violate any covenant of any impossible kind in his agreement forced on him by his landlord , he shall be ejected and shall get nothing ! If certain years set down in a schedule expire—though the houses he has built , the drains he has sunk , and the fences he has made with his own money and labour , be still in excellent preservation and of permanent value—lie may be ejected and shall get nothing ! In short , the tenant would be

      entitled to claim repayment , or compensation , for his outlay on one condition only—that he shall have been wantonly ejected from his farm before the years set down in ' the Act as " compensating period" expire . On the other hand , the bill of the Tenant-Right party proposes explicitly , proceeding upon a great principle , that the tenant ' s property , created by his capital and industry , shall be as saleable as the landlord's , as long as it ; lasts , —that if the tenant chooses to quit bis farm , lie may sell his improvements to any solvent tenant ready to take his place and enter on the saimi conditions towards his landlord , —that

      if the landlord chooses to turn him out , he must repay him the money lie has sunk on his landi . c . lcannot take back the raw material after it lias been trebled in value by skilled labour , just as if it were the identical article he had originally parted with . To illustrate this principle , let us put , the case this way :- A Manchester man who got , a bale of . American cotton and turned it into a beautiful or useful woven or coloured fabric , Mould not like the Yankee factor to claim to have it returned in i ( s manufactured state as still his own goods .

      Taking " Tenant Right , " however , not , in itn technical sense , but in its larger sense , as a protest of a - peasant and pastoral people against the iniquitous selfishness of the very limited class- — the owners of the soil , who , in _ religion and in politics , have ever been a different nation , A \ e conceive that the agitation which found parlinnientary expression on Tuesday , will obtain extensive ' sympathy from the j > eop ! e of this country . Irish pubiie opinion is rising up against Hie laiid-laws which have crushed Ireland ; and

      English public opinion may assist in the effort to constrain I he class M r . N apier represent ^ as counsel , into concessions above , and better than , those which menu legal statutes may record . Irishmen are Keeking to obtain by law what Ulster has by custom , and what the English farmers have by t lie aid of public opinion — corrective eoinpel . il / ion . And it is somewhat to be regretted that not only do lOnglish Liberal members not vote on these Irish social questions , but they will not speak , which , prospectivoly , might be more effectual . To us it appears a iiow turn , in the BtateHiimnahip

      inference being , that the landlords are losing their supremacy , and that the farmers are getting enlightened , both circumstances suggesting that a prosperous civilized era is beginning . And the appearances of the debate are justified b y a reference to the facts in Ireland . Three different concurrent influences have produced a social revolution .

      of Irish memberdom , that such a question as this of Tenant-Eight bills , is the only one they proffer for Imperial consideration . It is the " practical" business the Irish party have so long been taunted , in turn by all English parties with neglecting . The inferences from such a debate &s that on Tuesday are gratifying to Ireland ' s connexions in several ways ; the broad

      The emigration gave back a balance to the labour-market . The transference of lands from tied to free hands , through the Encumbered Estates Court , revived healthy relations in wide districts between owner and tenant . Lastly , the railways , which were somewhat premature in Ireland , have forced , at first artificially , but now are developing naturally , the vast agricultural resources of the country , opening markets everywhere . People are beginning to be busy in Ireland ; and what may not be the future of a land eased of most of its anomalous social burdens , abounding in all the means of wealth , and in a condition to make the most of the fact that

      it is nearer New York by a day than we are ? It is probable that Mr . Napier ' s Compensation Bill will be withdrawn , and that Mr . S . Crawford ' s , now Mr . Serjeant Shee ' s Bill , will be divided on , and rejected . If , however , we had any influence with Irish members , we would advise them , as a inatter of tactics , to accept the Government bills , and do their best to improve them in committee . The question of " Tenant Right" has not yet been long enough before

      England to enable her to comprehend its technical details : and the Irish , members may be sure that they can only carry their point , this or any other , after they have both interested and convinced the English liberals . But , we would further suggest that Tenant Right is , after all , not the solitary panacea . The " transition state" of Ireland might be taken advantage of by her liberal economical philosophers , to effect that redistribution of the soil into many hands ,

      upon which , if she is to remain an agricultural country , she must depend for that prosperity which is alone meant by the simple farmers who risk their holdings , and face tho workhouse or America when they vote for a . " Tenant-Right" member . The Encumbered Estates Court is doing vast good in exchanging pauperized large proprietors for unencumbered large proprietors . JBut something more is wanted than large proprietors : Ireland , as well as England , wants small proprietors . Wo are not urging the economy of " small farms " in tho sense in which small farms are abhorred by British economists . We mean , when we spcaJc

      approvingly of a peasant proprietary , little- properties of from ten to fifty acres—nearer the iiuy than the ton . The " Freehold Land ' Conference , the otherdayjias shown howslight an extension or machinery would enable the farmers of knglana to become in fifty years the owners , to a large extent , of the noil they till ; and the principle ot the English Freehold ' Land movement was nrgca some two or three years ago b y Mr . Charie . ( Javim Dufiy , the member for New Ivobs , as availably applicable to Ireland , vid the . fcn « un ' bered Estates Courtfor purelysocial , iijmrl liom

      , political , purposes . Mr . Dufly is now the oiganizer , as we believe be was the originator , tho Tenant-Right agitation ; but we hope he 1 ^ not forgotten his subsidiary plan . Sir '"' " . ' ,. . V .-always explained how Ireland was bis duel < li - cully , in lamenting that there wan no « lKl ( l " class ; and in an agricultural country , the oniy middle class is the yeoman class . Wanting y ^< " men , Ireland only knows the middle-man .

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      now houis NAi'oLKON is kmi'Kkok . Tii K conduct of the Allied Powers in recognising Napoleon 111 ., notwithstanding their threat , im protests to the contrary , convinces us that J-o iNapoleon . has attained bis present pond ¦•<»[ : " only by favour ofliiH name , or personal < l " 11 ™™ :. or chance , or the lassitude and disondnintm ml of one half , and the fanatical ignorance ot to other half of the French people , but also ^ » y favour of another ny » tem which exists m Europe ,

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      1184 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 11, 1852, page 1184, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1964/page/12/